The Aesthetics of the Gospel

When God created the heavens and earth, He did it as an artist. He laid out the stars and planets, covered the earth with dirt and grass, and filled the open spaces with water, rivers and streams. He then dug into the dirt and fashioned man in His image and likeness. God Himself is an artist.

I grew up during the era when the art of hip-hop was taking shape. I remember bringing cardboard boxes to campus in middle school so my friends and I could practice our hand at head spins in the lunch area. I remember starting a conscious hip-hop group in high school called “Intelligent Teachers,” which was patterned after the greats like KRS-One and Poor Righteous Teachers. These kinds of expressions in music and art helped keep me off the streets and out of negative activity.

When I fast forward to this new generation of young people I find that there are still positive opportunities like I had to engage in the arts. My own daughter attends a visual and performing arts high school in downtown Los Angeles. She excels academically because she is able to express her talents in dance as an emotional outlet. I believe that the arts are a great vehicle for expression of emotions and spirituality.

If we are going to influence a generation of millennials who grew up on MTV, social media, BET and streaming services, we must engage them through the arts. This is why I’m excited to partner with an organization called Passion for Christ Movement (P4CM). P4CM exists to inspire a Passion for Christ and spark a movement that spans across the globe. They accomplish this goal through the arts.

Tomorrow I’m looking forward to hearing from artist like Chris Webb and Janette…ikz at the annual Rhetoric Conference. RHETORIC is the world’s largest Christian spoken word event. It started as a small event that was called Lyricists Lounge with only 150 people attending in downtown Los Angeles. Since then they have doubled in size each year—having over 300 people, then 750, then they sold out the venue at about 1,250 people for two shows.

The topics that are addressed through spoken word are an attempt to speak to every aspect of the human experience, God’s blessing over it, and His power to overcome it. In the past they’ve hit the topics of sexual molestation and abuse, overcoming homosexuality, AIDS, losing to cancer, encouragement to women to see that God finds them beautiful, a challenge to men to step their game up, the joy of the Lord, the power and necessity of evangelism in all walks of life, the importance of the youth to be a part of the movement… the list goes on.

As someone who was shaped positively by the arts, I am excited to see how God uses this new partnership between P4CM and World Impact. Imagine the empowered urban poor advancing the kingdom of God in every city through the local church by way of the arts. Imagine church planting movements being sparked out of spoken word events. Imagine an expression of God through churches and ministries that focus on telling God’s story through breakdancing, Christian hip-hop, and graffiti art. If God is the original artist then why aren’t we creating too?

Peter Watts is the Los Angeles City Director for World Impact.